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The Formula for Successful Aging | Gary Small | TEDxUCLA
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how many of you would like to live to be
a hundred or more how about living well
and healthy to a hundred or beyond I'm
going to show you how to do it
meet Madame Jean come on she lived in
the South of France where she ate the
Mediterranean diet was physically and
mentally active born 1875 died 1997 so
how long did she live can anybody do the
math 122 you passed your first cognitive
test well done now life expectancy was
much lower in the 19th century so her
longevity was quite remarkable before
she died she was mentally sharp and had
the brain of a healthy 80 year old she
was also an astute businesswoman at the
age of 94 she sold her apartment to a
French businessman who agreed to pay her
rent and let her live there for the rest
of her life he died 10 years later now
you may have heard about the blue zones
areas of the world where there are
clusters of centenarians people who live
to a hundred or more places like
Sardinia Italy Okinawa Japan or Loma
Linda California now in these regions
people share lifestyle habits that
comprise what I call the formula for
successful aging for things we can all
do for ourselves
physical activity mental exercise stress
management and healthy diet now I can't
guarantee that if you decide to move to
Sardinia Italy that you'll live to be a
hundred but there is compelling
scientific evidence that daily lifestyle
habits have a much greater impact on
your healthy aging than your genes the
quality longevity that we want to
achieve first involves brain health so
let me try to define brain health
because many people assume that brain
health is just memory it's all about memory
memory
certainly memory is important it defines
who we are without our memory we have no
past we can't plan for the future and we
can't enjoy the present but brain health
involves several mental functions like
being able to think and reason or keep a
steady mood now if we have a healthy
brain then we can make the right
decisions about lifestyle strategy so we
can maintain that brain health and
what's happening in our brains as we age
is that they experience excess
inflammation cells that normally fight
off infection or repair tissue start
attacking healthy brain cells
and we need anti-inflammatory strategies
to reverse that process and many healthy
daily habits like getting a good night's
sleep eating fish or physical exercise
fight brain aging because they are
anti-inflammatory now we know that as
doctors we can't diagnose Alzheimer's
disease at least in the past we couldn't
do that unless there was an autopsy
however at UCLA we invented the first
brain scan technology that allows us to
detect the physical evidence of
Alzheimer's disease in living people for
the first time so this animation
displays 20 brain scans arranged
according to memory scores and as memory
worsens Alzheimer's represented by the
warmer colors accumulates in the brain
now these scans here show you these
yellow and red areas where there's
advanced Alzheimer's disease as the
animation starts again we're seeing the
scans of people with normal memory these
people won't develop Alzheimer's
symptoms for decades to think that
Alzheimer's disease is silently growing
in our brains will freak people out but
I think this technology is an
opportunity to detect subtle problems so
we can fight brain aging while it's
early in its course we can plot memory
versus time and we can see that the
brain goes downhill if we do nothing to
protect it if we can intervene early
then we can slow down the process
unfortunately today we do too little too
late but it's easier to protect a
healthy brain than to try to repair
damage once it becomes extensive doctors
have come up with three major stages of
brain aging normal aging is when we joke
about misplacing our keys or forgetting
someone's name it tends to be stable but
if it progresses then the person
develops mild cognitive impairment when
it takes more time to compensate for
memory challenges now if that
compensation breaks down then the
individual develops dementia a memory
decline that interferes with
Independence there are a lot of
different causes of dementia Alzheimer's
disease is the most common cause but
depression medication side effects or
many reversible conditions can cause
dementia so it's important if you're
concerned about your memory to see your
doctor even if it is Alzheimer's
dementia there are effective treatments
available we know that if we put an
Alzheimer's patient on a placebo pill
they'll continue to worsen but there are
several effective medicines that can
temporarily stabilize symptoms but today
there's exciting research trying to
detect a disease modifying treatment
that can actually slow down the
progression of the illness these
developing treatments include vaccines
infusions new pills focused ultrasound
to try to jumpstart the brains memory
centers and even insulin nasal spray
because we know that diabetes increases
the risk for Alzheimer's disease
unfortunately we don't yet have a magic
bullet but already we know there are
several effective strategies to help us
age well and number one is physical
activity you don't have to become a
triathlete to protect your brain just
twenty minutes of brisk daily walking
will lower your risk for Alzheimer's
disease workouts will boost endorphins
which stabilizes your mood and physical
activity actually produces proteins that
get your brain cells to sprout badge
branches so they communicate more
effectively if you exercise your brain
will get bigger and a bigger brain is a
better brain so if somebody calls you a
number two mental exercise we know that
we can stimulate our minds by playing
games by socializing by doing all kinds
of things that are new and interesting
in fact if you have a college education
you have a lower risk for Alzheimer's
disease we've done some interesting
research to find out about our new
technology I mean the question is does
it help or hinder our brain health the
answer is both when our devices distract
us we have an impairment in our memory
but we can pick and choose what we
commit to memory and look everything
else up online so we decided to do some
interesting research to understand this
better to find out what goes on in the
brain the first time people search
online now to perform this study we had
to find volunteers who had never done an
internet search and we soon learned that
we could not recruit these people on
lines is not going to work but we were
able to find a group of older adults who
were naive to internet searching and we
compared them to an older group that had
prior internet experience and we tracked
their online brain activity using MRI
scans so when the Internet naive people
searched online these red areas show you
where their brains were active but when
the internet savvy people searched
online their brains were having a party
there was a huge increase in neural
activity so we think when people search
online for the first time or engage in
any new mental activity we don't quite
know what to do but once we come up with
a mental strategy there's an upsurge in
neural activity so simply searching
online can be a form of brain exercise
now we can also train our brains using
memory methods to compensate for
everyday memory impairment I came up
with a method I call look snap connect
so look is a reminder to focus attention
the biggest reason we don't remember as
we're simply distracted snap is a
reminder to make a mental snapshot of
what you want to recall our brains are
hard-wired to remember visually and
connect as a way of linking up those
mental snapshots so they have meaning if
something is meaningful it will be
memorable now you can use these methods
for remembering where you park your car
so here's three bumblebees hovering over
my car now if I park just below it in
lot to be I see William Shakespeare
standing on my car reciting to be or not
to be now does that mean that my car is
not to be a lot to be
may not be the best example but these
methods are very powerful for
remembering names and faces so if you
meet this gentleman there's a lot of
hair it's very easy because his name is
harry lisa has a subtle Mona Lisa smile
or you meet mrs. bangle her bangs make
it easy for a last name and she tells
you she's an attorney and that helps you
remember her personality now I encourage
people to use these methods because when
you meet someone who is you know and you
can't recall their name it's very
stressful and that brings us to number
three stress management stress is the
enemy of healthy aging chronic stress
shrinks the memory centers of the brain
if you inject a human volunteer with the
stress hormone cortisol it causes
temporary memory impairment but Tai Chi
meditation yoga and other relaxation
methods can reverse the process can
improve mood and improve memory ten
minutes of meditation each day actually
rewires areas of the brain and can
improve measures of telomeres on our
chromosomes which predicts longer life
expectancy we can also reduce stress by
spending time with friends by getting a
good night's sleep and you can combine
these strategies efficiently by
practicing the triple threat against
Alzheimer's disease take a walk with a
friend the physical exercise will boost
your brain health the conversation will
tweak those neural circuits if you talk
about what's worrying you it will reduce
stress now it's important to be relaxed
because we don't have stress we digest
our food better and that brings us to
number four healthy diet obesity
increases the risk for dementia but when
obese people lose weight it improves
their memory in those fits lasts for years
years
we need more omega-3 fats from fish and
nuts which are anti-inflammatory in
consuming fruits and vegetables fight
age-related oxidative stress and we've
got to minimize those chips and donuts
and other other refined sugars and
processed foods
which increase the risk for diabetes and
that increases your risk for dementia
good news on the nutrition front alcohol
in moderation lowers your risk for
dementia now it may be they're just
having a glass of wine at dinner lowers
stress but it could be ingredients in
the alcohol resveratrol which has been
extracted from red wine can actually be
anti ageing in the laboratory the
trouble is we don't know if the extract
actually gets into the brain so anybody
here taking resveratrol capsules wash it
down with a nice Bordeaux to be on the
safe side caffeine in moderation
protects the brain as do spices we just
completed in a study testing a
bioavailable form of curcumin from the
spice from turmeric its
anti-inflammatory in India there's a
lower rate of Alzheimer's disease and
people who consume spicy Indian food
more often perform better on memory
tests let's see how your memory is now
what's his name excellent and Lisa and
you remember this woman very good sue
bangle I incur the bottom line is it's
never too late or too early to start
living a healthy longevity lifestyle
we've already started by making the
connection between behavior and healthy
aging the next step is to begin a
program that is fun and easy my most
recent book is called two weeks to a
younger brain trust me if I called it
two years to a younger brain no one
would buy it but two weeks is just
enough time to start learning the
exercises to start experiencing benefits
and that positive feedback motivates us
to continue the healthy lifestyle
strategies for the long haul this is
what we're doing at the UCLA longevity
Center you can look us up online and get
some brain exercise or check out other
resources like AARP staying sharp which
is a brain health platform that is
science-based and helps people track
their brain health over time
remember your everyday habits have a
greater impact
on how long and how well you age madam
c'mon lived a hundred and twenty-two
years with a healthy brain and you too
can take control of your future
longevity by following the formula for
successful aging exercise your body
stimulate your mind manage stress and
eat right so you can enjoy yourself as
you live better and longer thank you [Applause]
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